Page 140 of That Last Summer

“Fucking awesome. And what did your asshole brother say?”

“Don’t insult him! It’s not his fault! And what do you think he said? That he would support me whatever I did.”

“Strength in numbers, right? You and Adrián have always been so close.”

Until now. We barely speak to each other anymore. And the root of it all germinated that afternoon in late September.

“You kept it quiet, didn’t tell anyone. Why?”

“I couldn’t tell my family. It was too much... Too much.”

“Oh, poor Priscila Cabana. Her husband fucks another woman, and she runs away terrified because she can’t take that blow. I didn’t think you were that immature. I have to admit it caught me off guard, I thought you were more capable of coping with life. I thought you were braver. But you fooled me.”

“It’s funny you think you were the fooled one.”

“Yeah, it’s fucking hilarious.” He let out an empty laugh. “Bad habits are contagious, I guess.”

“Alex, I...” I walk over to him and place a hand on his chest. I want this nightmare to end. Right now. We need to find a way to reconcile ourselves with the past. We both did wrong. It doesn’t make any sense to start hating each other again for something that happened four years ago. We’ve grown. We’ve matured and we’re different people now. A man and a woman who love each other and can rebuild their lives together.

“Don’t touch me.” He jerks my hand away. “And don’t talk to me either. Don’t even look at me, stay a hundred feet away from me. I don’t want to see you or hear from you for the rest of my life.”

“But—”

“And one last thing,” he says, pointing a finger at the phone. “The guy in that photo is not me.”

“What?” I don’t know what baffles me the most, what he said by itself or the calm way he said it. “Of course it’s you.”

“Well, here’s the thing. Unlike you, I know my body.”

“I’ve been memorizing every inch of your body since you were seventeen,” I assure him. And it’s true, there are few things I know better.

“It doesn’t seem so,” he says, frowning. “That makes me think, you know?”

“Think? Think about what?”

“Who else were you sleeping with back then?”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s only one explanation why you didn’t recognize me, and that is—”

“I did recognize you!”

That’s him, in the photo. It’s... him.

“—you were having sex with so many guys you had brain fog or something. Because if I was the only one, as you made me believe, it’s impossible you’d have thought the guy in that photo was me.”

“It is you!” I insist.

“Do you know what I thought when I saw it? What my first thought was?” He doesn’t let me answer. “That I had no fucking idea why you had a picture of my brother having sex with his girlfriend at the time, but I didn’t care either. It was weird even for you, and you know, you’re a weirdo. It wasn’t until seconds later that I understood. You really thought he was me.”

“Your brother? That’s not your brother. It’s you.”

I look at my phone screen to reassure myself, but Alex grabs it from my hands.

“This”—he emphasizes the word, and I know all his calm is about to blow up, I can feel it—“is not me. It’s not me! It’s not me, dammit! Fucking hell! I still can’t believe it. You thought it was me and you still think so!”

“It’s... It’s you.”